Button: Results don't reflect McLaren work

Jenson Button has played down McLaren's prospects of a strong result in Spain this weekend but is adamant that the outfit is working tirelessly to move up the grid.

Button scored his first point of the season in Russia as team-mate Fernando Alonso took sixth, but the Briton is more downbeat over McLaren's chances of repeating such a result at Formula 1's traditional test venue.

"The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is not a circuit that would traditionally suit us, since it’s fairly hard on both the chassis and the power units," he said.

"But I feel I have a solid car underneath me, and we’re putting in pretty consistent performances on a variety of circuits, even if our results don’t necessarily reflect all the work that’s going on back at base."

Honda chief Yusuke Hasegawa is nonetheless optimistic that Alonso and Button can scrap for the top 10 positions.

"From a power unit perspective, it is important to have the correct amount of deployment, harvesting and throttle response, so our focus will be to deliver the best balance to suit the needs of our drivers," he said.

"Our power unit development is ongoing and we have not yet confirmed to which races we will bring token updates, but hopefully we can fight for more points during Sunday’s race."